Arch Linux

bope

Member

Registered: 2012-12-08

Posts: 17

Restore from backup and convert partitions

Hello. This may sound a bit confusing so let me simplify what i currently have and what i wanna end up having:

Currently:
Laptop
SSD 1: 500 GB Windows 10 BIOS/MBR
SSD 2: 500 GB Arch BIOS/MBR

New laptop:
SSD 1: 1 TB. Supports only UEFI / GPT

I need basically a dual boot with MBR/GPT conversion. What i did is installed Win10 on 500 GB (fresh install as i don't use it as much and don't care for existing data) and kept remaining 500 GB for Arch. My plan of action is:
- using Clonezilla copy Arch partition by partition to the new Laptop (i have root 40GB, var 15GB and home 440 GB)
- Login to my Arch using live CD
- Convert partitions from MBR to GPT
- Fix fstab
- Reinstall GRUB so i get back my dual-boot capabilities.

Taking into account this is the first time i do that and procedure would take a lot of time, do you guys think this would work? I would feel bad in spending 20 hours on above just to find out it wouldn't work... Which approach would you use?

P.S. My current Arch installation is quite old and i even don't know how much custom configs and similar stuff i have. Having some kind of new Arch installation on the new PC with "traditional" data restore could (i think) mess up a lot of things hence i'm reluctant to go that way

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 24,081

Re: Restore from backup and convert partitions

That's just unnecessary complexity. Set up your partitions like you want them from the get go and then copy over the files you need: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Rs … em_cloning

bope

Member

Registered: 2012-12-08

Posts: 17

Re: Restore from backup and convert partitions

As i can't rsync directly old SSD -> new SSD (can't open new laptop) would it be possible to go this way:
rsync old laptop -> FAT32 external disk -> rsync new laptop
?

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 24,081

Re: Restore from backup and convert partitions

you can rsync directly, do so over the network, rsyncing to a FAT disk isn't going to end well.

Or clone the disk image to the fat disk and then mount and pull data out of the image

Last edited by V1del (2020-12-28 11:54:02)

bope

Member

Registered: 2012-12-08

Posts: 17

Re: Restore from backup and convert partitions

Can't use the network at this time
"Or clone the disk image to the fat disk and then mount and pull data out of the image"
So with rsync i can clone to an image, copy image to external HDD and then restore using rsync from saved image?

schard

Forum Moderator

From: Hannover

Registered: 2016-05-06

Posts: 2,178

Website

Re: Restore from backup and convert partitions

Can't use the network at this time
"Or clone the disk image to the fat disk and then mount and pull data out of the image"
So with rsync i can clone to an image, copy image to external HDD and then restore using rsync from saved image?

Why not? You just need one ethernet cable connecting the divices.
If they don't have ethernet adapers built-in, you can get low-budget USB Ethernet dongles (which are always nice to have).
It will also spare you time to copy to an from an interim disk.

If you really use the interim disk approch, make sure to use an archive format to preserve file meta data.
I'd recommend using bsdtar with the "-p" option for this.

Last edited by schard (2020-12-28 12:23:33)

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bope

Member

Registered: 2012-12-08

Posts: 17

Re: Restore from backup and convert partitions

Ok, all my laptops are WiFi only, but if i understood correctly if i connect both laptops via USB/ETH dongle to the same router i could rsycn directly from one to the other?

Btw, does this mean "drop-in replacement" approach i described in the first post is a definite no-go? I was imagining the easiest approach would be just clone partition -> partition and have it all dancing all singing

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 24,081

Re: Restore from backup and convert partitions

It's not a no go, it's unnecessary additional steps. You can do that but I just don't see why.

bope

Member

Registered: 2012-12-08

Posts: 17

Re: Restore from backup and convert partitions

Aha, ok. So way to go is:
- Install arch-minimal on the new laptop
- login there
- connect to the router
- transfer directly from old laptop to the new one using rsync?

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 24,081

Re: Restore from backup and convert partitions

for example, make sure you don't forget a EFI partition and follow the relevant EFI install instructions.

Last edited by V1del (2020-12-28 14:00:29)

bope

Member

Registered: 2012-12-08

Posts: 17

Re: Restore from backup and convert partitions

But will arch-minimal installation with Grub handle EFI partition automatically? With MBR it was all sooo much easier No brainer

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 24,081

Re: Restore from backup and convert partitions

No this is Arch, nothing happens automatically. But setting up a EFI partition and then installing GRUB on it is  one line. It really isn't that much different from that aspect, you just need "additionally" a distinct FAT partition.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/GR … allation_2

Last edited by V1del (2020-12-28 15:29:04)

bope

Member

Registered: 2012-12-08

Posts: 17

Re: Restore from backup and convert partitions

Ok, will sink my teeth into this and write here if i managed to do that
Thanks!

bope

Member

Registered: 2012-12-08

Posts: 17

Re: Restore from backup and convert partitions

So, i have used dd as per Arch wiki to  burn arch to usb drive. The issue is that now when i boot from it laptop restarts and continues booting Windows! Secure boot is disabled. Any idea why's that?

P.S. sorted using Rufus

Last edited by bope (2020-12-28 23:21:41)

bope

Member

Registered: 2012-12-08

Posts: 17

Re: Restore from backup and convert partitions

So, in the end i went with Clonezilla approach It worked like a charm, really much easier than i expected!

For future reference:
0) Using any method create GPT partitions whose size match or exceed Linux partitions you wanna clone.
1) Clone desired partitions using Clonezilla (brilliant software!)
2) Have Arch live usb ready
3) Boot into Arch via live USB
4) fdisk -l gives the list of partitions - identify your root partition
5) Mount root partition: mount /dev/<root_part> /mnt
6) arch-chroot /mnt
7) now when chrooted to your root partition mount other partitions. For me it was:
mount /dev/<var_part> /var
mount /dev/<home_part> /home
8) Make sure to also mount EFI partition:
mount /dev/<efi_partition> /efi
9) Make sure "efibootmgr" package is installed, if not install it
10) execute:
# grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/efi --bootloader-id=GRUB
11) There should be no errors reported. If so regenerate Grub cfg:
# grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

Voila! For me it worked like a charm, Windows partition was recognized by GRUB, new entry called "GRUB" was added amont UEFI Boot options and i was able to boot both Windows and Arch!

Only issue i have at the moment is sporadic text flickering while typing something. Reinstalling Nvidia and other packages didn't help so seems like it something else but other things work like a charm.